where they spent three or four hours in their respective shower baths.
Percy Beaumont had suggested that they ought to see something of
the town; but "Oh, damn the town!" his noble kinsman had rejoined.
They returned to Mr. Westgate's office in a carriage, with their luggage,
very punctually; but it must be reluctantly recorded that, this time,
he kept them waiting so long that they felt themselves missing
the steamer, and were deterred only by an amiable modesty from dispensing
with his attendance and starting on a hasty scramble to the wharf.
But when at last he appeared, and the carriage plunged into the
purlieus of Broadway, they jolted and jostled to such good purpose
that they reached the huge white vessel while the bell for departure
was still ringing and the absorption of passengers still active.
It was indeed, as Mr. Westgate had said, a big boat, and his leadership
in the innumerable and interminable corridors and cabins, with which
he seemed perfectly acquainted, and of which anyone and everyone appeared
to have the entree, was very grateful to the slightly bewildered voyagers.
He showed them their stateroom--a spacious apartment, embellished with
gas lamps, mirrors en pied, and sculptured furniture--and then,
long after they had been intimately convinced that the steamer was in motion
and launched upon the unknown stream that they were about to navigate,
he bade them a sociable farewell.

"Well, goodbye, Lord Lambeth," he said; "goodbye, Mr. Percy Beaumont.
I hope you'll have a good time. Just let them do what they want with you.
I'll come down by-and-by and look after you."

The young Englishmen emerged from their cabin and amused
themselves with wandering about the immense labyrinthine steamer,
which struck them as an extraordinary mixture of a ship and a hotel.
It was densely crowded with passengers, the larger number